Sermon for November 11

The readings (I was at another church this morning, so I used the Revised Common Lectionary texts)

1 Kings 17:8-16

Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you."So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.”  As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand."  But she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die." Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth." She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah.

Psalm 146

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!

 I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long.

 Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.

 When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish.

 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God,

 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever;

 who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free;

 the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.

 The LORD watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

 The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD!

Hebrews 9:24-28

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.  Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Mark 12:38-44

As he taught, he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation."  He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.  Then he called his disciples and said to them, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

The message

I am happy to be here with you for worship this morning.  I have spent most of this year serving as the coverage pastor for this congregation. A lot of my work has been behind the scenes and involved visiting the sick, counseling, funerals, worship preparation, meeting with and helping the council during this long time of transition and working with the Bishops office on plans for the future.  This time has been challenging on us.  I thank the leaders and members of this church for covering up when I could not do something, for stepping up, caring for each other, working hard, figuring things out, keeping these doors open and this church together

Of course, I am not really here to share updates,  This is church time, this is who we are, why we keep these doors open, this is the strength for everything else. An opportunity for us to gather as sinners saved by the same grace, together to sing God’s praise, hear God’s word, engage with God’s word,  encounter the presence of the Risen Christ and lift up our prayers.    

I would like to start off that work with a question about our short, uncomfortable Gospel reading.  If you think this reading about the poor widow who gives the last of her little money to the temple is about stewardship, about sacrificial, generous giving to church or temple, if you have ever heard a pastor or religious leader talk about it that way, please raise your hand. 

I am going to spend the next few minutes explaining why I think that’s wrong.  This encounter of Jesus and his followers with the poor widow is not about giving. I do not say that lightly, to question the plain meaning of scripture is serious and needs to be done in faith.  I go way back to our first reading from the Book of Kings. It tells the story of the prophet Elijah who cares for and sustains a poor widow in the city of Zarepath.  Elijah is considered the greatest prophet of ancient Israel, the one who appears with Moses at the Transfiguration, the one who defeats the prophets of Baal, a diety worshipped by Israel’s neighbors (and many people in Israel too), who confronts kings and speaks God’s word fearlessly.  

Today, we see Elijah following the law, caring for a widow.  There are many references in the law where God instructs people to care for widows and orphans, verses like Exodus  22  You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry or  Deutermony 14 “At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, God commands people to care for those in need and that is what Elijah does.  Jesus does many of the things that the prophet Elijah did accept Jesus does them bigger and better. Elijah feeds hundred people with a little food, Jesus feeds a crowd of thousands with even less food.  Elijah heals the sick, Jesus heals the very sick. Elijah restores sight to the blind, Jesus restores sight to a man born blind. In Today’s Gospel reading, there is no amplification of a miracle done by Elijah, Jesus does not feed this widow at the temple, he does not offer her a full supply of food or a bag of coins, Jesus does not tell anyone to go and do likewise. Jesus gives her no help and no reward (at least not that is recorded or known). 

To make this more clear, we need to look at the context, where this story fits into the Gospel of  Mark. This observing of the widow happens during the week before Jesus betrayal, trial, death and resurrection.  A few days earlier Jesus chases the money lenders out of the temple, declaring my father’s house is a place of prayer and telling those in charge of it they have made it a den of thieves. The religious authorities made a lot of their income from charging visitors to the temple bad exchange rates to purchase sacrifices. In Mark, this is the moment when Jesus goes from annoyance to problem the authorities need to get rid of.  Right before highlighting the actions of this poor widow Jesus once again attacks the fake faith, the greed and hypocrisy of the religious authorities.  Right after he tells his disciples the temple, the place the poor widow was giving her last few cents to help maintain, will be destroyed, that not one brick will be left on top of another.    Jesus had just accused the religious authorities of devouring widows' houses and here they were, literally doing that.  It was so bad they did not even need to ask, the woman thought she was doing right.

There was a religion where the command to care for widows and orphans is lived out by taking their last few cents. They were a community of people rooted in today’s psalm which praises the Lord who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry, sets the prisoners free, opens the eyes of the blind, lifts up those who are bowed down. watches over the strangers and upholds the orphan and the widow. They celebrated this caring God by letting this widow give all she has and standing around, not caring.  

This woman’s act of giving all she had to the temple is something to celebrate. She does the work of a prophet, exposing the corruption of the religious authorities, revealing their failure to keep God’s law, an ancient whistle blower who sacrifices everything to bring attention to a crisis.  She was making everyone around her uncomfortable.  No one could pretend things were okay or that she was not there.  She is out of place.  The religious authorities should have done what God tells the people to do from the very first days, what Elijah did, what Elisha did, what Jesus did, what st paul did, what st Peter did, what the first Christians did, what we should do, care for people in need. If anybody was paying attention to God’s word, that widow should not have been down to her last penny. Her very existence and simple act of giving has spoken God’s word of justice and correction for almost 2000 years, Its amazing what you can do with a penny.  

I think of a recent Saint, a man named Oscar Romero who served as an Archbishop in El Salvador until he was assassinated during mass back in the 1980s.  One quote he is known for, which summarizes his work on behalf of the poor and against the violence of civil war and corruption is “When I gave food to the poor, people called me a saint, when I asked why the poor have no food, they called me a communist”  This morning Jesus is not healing the sick, he is not feeding the crowds, he is not restoring the leper, encouraging generosity or raising the dead, Jesus is asking why does this widow have no support, how did she get to her last penny.    

Of course, a few days after this, Jesus will make his own sacrifice, exposing the sin of the world that kills their savior on a cross, exposing our inability to save ourselves, exposing how resist people are to God, exposing how loving God is.  God takes care of sin for us, takes care of forgiveness, gives out grace,  we are left to say thank you and to deal with poverty.